Monday, December 29, 2014

First one is Rylie's redesign, from an old webcomic of mine. She's a cyborg which fits in the game environment more than my last design. Bottom is Sgt. Hardcore, a throwback to another character from the same webcomic. This guy uses his powers to establish a new era where meta humans rule because of his warped view of Darwinism.

Not much to report about, I did download game maker and will be toying with that this week. Had some snafus in real life and work so I've been not as active... plus the holidays too.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

I posted an image on my Twitter feed for a character design update, and while I don't want to repost a small update on it, I'll post it here:

I changed some colors around compared to the pic on twitter because I realized the whites on her armmings (name escapes me atm) resemble a certain "party" minus the symbol so I had to change that haha. Belts are reddish instead of brown, trying to go for the systematic four color range. I even fixed her left eye because it seemed higher than the other, and her head was a bit too wide. Other than that I loved how this turned out, and now I need to start working on sprites, er again. I want to try out the Zelda aesthetic and try for an action game that way and experiment to see if I can get it to work on Construct 2.I have drawings of two boss characters and the big bad that I want to illustrate soon, though I'll put that off for a while to see if the Zelda approach works.--------------------------I want to post FFXIV and FFXV stuff so bad, but I tweeted it all. All I can say is so far, steps in the right direction. Between this, Street Fighter V, MGSV, Zelda U, and Xenoblade CXis gaming in the east making a comeback?Going to be an interesting gen.See you later!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Twitter wouldn't be an idea place to post this. It's been over a month since I've updated this space it's about due for one.Haven't done much game devving since I finished Baxter's Venture Director's Cut a couple months back. It's still in Greenlight Limbo, not exactly sure if it'll ever get greenlit. It has been creeping up to the 10k vote threshold, though I think I need to find better avenues to get exposure. My efforts have been in vain lately so I've taken a break from all that before I get more discouraged.I've started another game project, started putting some concept art on Twitter with a female protagonist named Rylie, even started a sprite. However, working on a prototype in Construct 2 led me to understand my original plans won't be as fun as I had hoped. There have been some changes in her concept art, but I haven't had the chance to scan it and touch it, illustrate it, and post it due to my scanner still at my old apartment propping my modem and router while the maintenance crews fix up my apt due to flooding... they're nearly done and it looks like I'll be moving back next weekend if all goes well.Back to the game, it seems I'm letting discouragement set in. Since I became a Wii U dev I learned that if I tried to port my games on the dev kit (something I can't afford as of yet) it's not going to run as well. I've been wanting to start some kind of prototype to raise money for a dev kit, but getting a prototype has been holding me back as I'm not so sure what kind of game I should make. I fear if I don't produce something soon I could lose my privilege.Obviously, my strong point has always been platformers. Though I am considering a top-down Zelda style game, maybe an action RPG. Though after reading it seems like Construct 2 on Wii U you have to be VERY careful what you put in there because devs experienced severe slowdowns from having so many spites and animations at one time... I hope that isn't the case because it feels limiting considering what the system could do. Maybe it's limited for HTML5.Also I've had swirls of nostalgia hitting me like a ton of bricks, I want to take some older projects and reboot them for this new project instead, I tend to get indecisive when it comes to projects. Then it hit me why I never finish these. It's because these featured a male protagonist... and when you look at games and anime, just about every archetype of male protags have been done to DEATH. My character would of been an alter ego of mine, he'll be darker skinned than the typical male lead but my male characters always get compared to someone who already exists and it drives me bonkers.When a draw a female protagonist though... there IS no real comparison. Then I started to think all those articles of lack of female representation in gaming have a very strong point, and when I was doing crossover comics starring Tifa, Cammy, and even Mai from Fatal Fury all my strongest writing skills stemmed from those works compared to Cloud, Joe Higashi, and Solid Snake.Hell, I already have a very interesting backstory I wanted to try. I can't make this funny with a male protagonist:Rylie: "I once ran an INN in a remote village outside the castle walls. Day in and day out, I'd watch adventurers spend the night to refill their HP/MP. Ever since I was a little girl I longed for the days where I would fight side by side with would be heroes to save the world from danger. I see these heroes come in and I try to engage conversation and hear their stories of their adventures. In my off time, when I'm not being prepped for marriage, I spend it with an old rusted sword on training dummies in the courtyard."Rylie: "Oh how I envy them, if only I could quit this boring life and explore countless worlds!"Rylie: "The downfall of being an NPC is that you're -destined- to settle down, start a family. My arranged husband is just a mere coal miner... a fat, dumpy, boring coal miner..."(cue image of an exhausted Rylie wearing an apron, holding a laundry basket and two kids running amok while fat husband covered in soot sleeps on the couch)Rylie: "NO!! That does it THAT'S IT! Next wanna be heroes come in here I'm going to take their shit and go on an adventure, tradition be damned!"(Alex and Cassandra, the default RPG maker heroes walk inside, Alex draws his blade in a salute:)Alex: "Tally-ho innkeep, one bed please!"(Cass looks upon Alex in disgust)Cass: He means, two beds... *please*(Rylie grabs Alex's blade by the near tip and sucker punches the young hero, takes his sword and items, then takes off into the outskirts.)Cass: "Oh my... OH THANK GOD! Alex is no longer the hero so I don't have to marry him once we save the world, woohoo!. -- Oh, but wait. I can't be a RPG healer trope without a swordsman, hey lady wait for meeeeee! You can't fight monsters without heaaaaals!"(elsewhere in Skyrim)Coal Miner: "Babe, I'm home from another day in the mines. I was almost killed by a giant spider but luckily the Dragonborn was around to shout it to death. Yo babe? I don't smell any food... "Coal Miner: (looms over stove) Oh well I can make dinner I suppose, how hard could it be?(image of cottage on fire)(same image of cottage on fire, zoomed out where we see a dragon turning to the screen.)Ancient Dragon: Dragonspeak: "Iv Nyort Yil Krosis!" (It's meant to be jibberish) Translation: "Ain't I a stinker?"See? I came up with that in a matter of minutes. When I had G-man (alter ego) it took me a while to flesh out a backstory, because every hero's backstory has been done to death. I feel my creative strong points are working with something I have little knowledge about so I feel obligated to fill in the blank with whatever I choose and people can't compare it to something popular because it doesn't always exist! Sometimes miss doing Gman stories, I felt there was potential even if my art and writing were garbage in those days, maybe I need to face facts and come to terms those days are long over and there needs to be something new.I don't know if the Wii U HTML5 can handle a game that has a story, maybe I could do a basic LoZ type with a beginning and end. So much work to be done, but this weekend my attention is focused on Playstation's Experience. I am curious what more bombs will drop.Street Fighter V and Dragon's Dogma Online so far.Anyway, stay tuned!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Evening everyone,I'm not going to bore you with the details of why I haven't been keeping up with weekly updates. Honestly, I got nothing notable since I've tend to show off on my twitter feed.I have started concept art for my next game, it's going to be the game I want to get on the Wii U. I've tooled around with Unity and to be honest, it's still a bit out of my scope with the limited time I have away from my day job. It looks like I'm sticking with Construct 2 for this one, my next step is to tackle what kind of genre it is... Platformer/Explorative, Zelda style top down, etc. The step after that is to start a Patreon account to get funding for:-Dev Kit $2k-Additional Monitor $200-500?-Better equipment $400 maybe?So I'm looking at around $3000.00ish maybe more if I were to make some things for the supporters, but before I put one up I'll have a playable demo showcasing what the game can do, and some swag for supporters like GG-Works shirts, art books, game soundtrack, (both for this and Baxter's Venture), name added to credits into the game.--------------------------------------I've also decided on purchasing a capture card for my youtube videos, I keep trying to do the el-cheapo way and the quality is pretty poor for what I want to produce. Not going to do the whole voice acting thing unless the video calls for it.--------------------------------------Okay, Gamergate... I'm not even going to dignify this with a hashtag. This movement duped many well meaning gamers that it was meant to fight game journalist corruption, but what has been really been going down is people harassing male and female industry workers to the point of them leaving their homes......really guys?To be honest, I've always been thinking that these kind of people aren't really gamers, oh they play and identify as gamers, but the kind of self-rightous psychopaths back before the turn of the century wouldn't be caught dead with a game controller. I've lived in Kingman, Arizona most of my life and I can testify I've met some very crazy folk in my youth, the kind you would see trolling the interwebs. Sometimes people say things in the throws of passion, and while they may be passionate about games, they feel threatened that Jack Thompson 2.0, aka feminism are going to take their games away. In the heart of it, these are the same kind of people who thrive in making people miserable, because "cynicism is cool". You might know that kind of person, where every other word they say is "fuck", and don't think very rationally. They're angry, say angry things, insecurity breeding false confidence. They just hate, and they thrive on it, there's no reason why they hate so hard, they just do. It's like the Monarch from the Venture Bros, but much less hilarious.I'll say this, and it's something I'd never thought I'd say, and Godwin help me I promised I'd never turn this blog into a political poopdeck, but here goes:I don't think Anita Sarkeesian ever made a proposal to ban videogames because they're sexist. I don't agree with few things she's nitpicked on in her videos, though some areas she does have a point. Then, and ONLY then if she decides to create a crusade to ban videogames because of the things she criticizes, THEN gamers will have a problem, I think gamers are afraid of that conclusion if the "other side gets their way."Jack Thompson was still worse, he wanted to outright BAN videogames because of claims that led to people being violent... while dubious in those days, I hate to say it but many gamergate supporters doing the threatening and the name calling are proving him right. Jack did get death threats and the like, and he still gets disbarred years later.What would be ironic is that gamergate backfired to the point where the courts do get involved and started regulating what goes into our games... I can't fathom the amount of nerd rage that would surface from this, it would make the backlash from SOPA look like a joke in comparison. This is my concern, because nature abhors a vacuum. But it won't happen, Gaming is too big now to be taken away, but it can change. First of all, speaking to the anti-GG people for a moment:"Labeling EVERY SINGLE GAMER as vicious sexist trolls because a vocal minority is trying to drag this out with their own agenda is a very naive thing to do." Gaming journalists, moreso SJWs, if you're reading remember this:Racists lump everyone together in a negative light because they believe they are justified in doing so. People on the anti-GG side are doing the same thing right now, lumping gamers as this fearmongering hate group because a few loudmouths can't learn to shut the eff up. I've been labeled before, I've dealt with racism and trust me when I say this, lumping people into a negative collective is the exact same thing racists do. Rather than attacking the gamers, attack the individuals that are harassing you, bring those people toward the light rather than picking on the majority of people who just want honest game journalism, not click bait articles.Many of us do get some of the things like sexism and misogyny, hell many of us would love diversity. Like with every fandom, there are going to be assholes that don't want it, look how long it took for the film and music industry to learn, give gaming some more time, it might suck right now, but trust me on this, once the big companies decide to target a different (wider) audience, those assholes will have to either accept or find a new hobby. Remember videogames were considered a geek only affair, when the dudebros and "non-gamers" flooded our hobby thanks to a change in the industry by focusing the gritty dark games, Madden, and shooters, it was a hard adjustment, but we managed, and we will again. Just give it time.

Look, I've been there. I used to get defensive when someone questions the things I like, I grew up in a time where you would get your ass kicked in school for TALKING about videogames. Where the likes of Duke Nukem, Wolfenstien, and the original DOOM were, considered a certain homophobic slur from people who don't play them... I loathed when Jack Thompson came on the scene and try to label videogames, from the harmless Super Mario to the over the top GTA3 as these big evil death simulators that corrupt 'Murica's youth, I wanted blood. Then I realized (albeit a couple years later) I was being stupid. This was my favorite hobby, it gave me positive reinforcement when the rest of my life was in constant misery, so please try some kind of understanding when you decide to trash a medium you don't agree with that brings other people some kind of joy, even if they're being a little ignorant of it's subject matter.

As for the more vocal members of GG...When you're a young adult with an internet connection, you tend to think you're some unstoppable force behind a keyboard. My advice to you is to take a good hard look at what you're supporting. I GET there are some bad apples on the other side of the gamergate, but you had the opportunity to be the better person and failed hard. We had it in the bag when Thompson tried his damnedest to convince the ignorant public that "gamer" is a dirty word.Now history repeats itself, no one learned a damn thing, you've screwed it up, and Thompson must be laughing in his latte right about now.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Good evening, just dropping a line to say that I'm still testing Baxter's Venture DC due to some more bugs i've ran into today. Thankfully they're all minor.Now the good news is that I'm going to try and get this game on Scirra's game store in the next few days if all goes to plan. I want to move on to my next project, which I've already been doing concept art for.I'm not one to make big announcements without something to show for, but it looks like I'm leaning towards Unity for my next game, despite the lack of programming knowledge which is my biggest deterrent. Game Maker for all the work it's has been done to it... that you can start porting games to the latest Playstation and soon Xbox One, I'm worried that Game Maker's "unique" tools would be far too buggy.Unity is widely supported on ALL platforms, because it's coded in C#, my problem is with my abysmal budget I'll only be able to make PC games and have to pay a very expensive fee to port to other consoles.GameMaker's PS4 export requires you to be a Playstation developer, I'm assuming the same will be for Xbox. There is no Wii U support, yet, but I hope that comes soon.I need to get this in gear, because now that I'm a Wii U developer, I need to produce. I've learned that despite Construct 2 has a Wii U plugin, the original creator seemingly abandoned it to a third party and I have yet to receive it, on top of that I need a development kit which is a bit shy of a couple grand. I've also learned that Wii U doesn't support HTML5 entirely, like WebGL so your game would have to be minimalist as possible... which is a shame. So no chance on producing something equivalent to Shovel Knight or AVGN adventures.And that is why I'm looking at Unity. I think I'm ready to tackle on a 3D game, a small scale game though. Otherwise I could be looking at YEARS of development. In the past couple of years I've watch the indie scene from a distance while making my game and noticed that if I went back in time, I should of made Baxter's Venture pixel art, with some interesting gimmick. However, I noticed that increasingly more people are getting fed up with pixel art/retro style aesthetic that's all too common with indie devs, it is a niche market after all, since the current gaming generation grew up with Playstation and N64 games they'd probably prefer to see 3D looking titles.Minimalist survival horror and ragdoll simulators are getting a lot of attention now, but side scrolling 3D games can still turn some heads. I need to keep the concept simple since it's being an uphill battle, so I'd like to create a linear 3D adventure game where you have to go from level to level. I'm thinking along the lines of Sonic Adventure minus the HUB world and extra friends. Just you, some three acts per level, and boss rooms. The 3D aspect would be great for exploring since I tend to have a scorekeep for when you beat the game you get what ending. So I guess the hard part is building the engine first, then making the game... but I plan to try to get funding for this game via patreon.--------------------------Oh, Destiny is addicting, at least until you're decked out in Legendary/Exotic and waiting for the next expansion. Also, looking forward to Final Fantasy Type 0 for FFXV demo! Cheers!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

The video is a bit dated, as the following screens show the graphical changes to Acts 1 + 2, with a little for Act 3. I'm also going for one more playthrough and I've already found a few things I did overlook as I changed some levels around. Finished rounding Act 4. I wanted to make a video tonight, but I feel I should tend to testing this first.This game has a ways to go if it's going to be on Steam, however I think I'll put this game for sale very soon in the Scirra store to help it gain some kind of exposure.Originally, I have the tail attack a speed boost, but it has proven to be counter productive so I had to remove it. Baxter is a little brighter so he stands out from the backgrounds more.Also, in bigger news, GGWorks Games is officially a Wii U developer! Still waiting on the Wii U plug in and will also be finding a way to raise money for a dev kit. I've submitted an application to Microsoft for development access but haven't heard from them yet. --------------------------I've been talking about this alot, but I will need to find some time to learn Unity, or C# if I want to continue to make videogames. I have another idea for a game I will pitch to my soon-to-be Patreon account. It's still in the planning stages so once Baxter's Venture Director's Cut is all done I can start on concept art.I can say that this time I will make it pixelated, and the protagonist will be female.... NOT because of the whole gamergate mess, this idea I had cooking around February and decided this would be my next project.--------------------------You may notice ads popping up on this site soon, as well as content from Youtube as I now have my platform ready for my Youtube Channel: "Glendemonium" The first in a hopefully long series stars a clumsy supervillain named "The Revenger" who's going to be played by the lead character from Watch Dogs who I'll dub with my voice. Been doing some practice runs and nailed the tone, now I need to make it more humorous as the story of this guy is he's a bit of a lousy stalker accusing a high school crush and her "militia" for stalking him back, which evolves into him terrorizing the city in the name of "justice". I'll have to draw out a storyboard intro to give you the idea of what I'm going for.Alright! That's all for tonight, stay tuned!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Yeah, I completely dropped the ball on alot of stuff since last month, I apologize for not updating.Since the storm and the loss of my car, and the chance of having to be forced out of my apartment, morale was at an all time low to do any sort of updating. With constant monsoons threatening to take me down in the past few weeks, being around electronics wasn't safe.Last Monday, I did however finally found a car within my budget to purchase, and even THAT was slightly flooded because weather hates me for some reason... but it still runs great, and that's what's important. Not sure if or when I have to move out of my apartment, because my landlord isn't sure what she wants to do while they repair my apartment and I figured I'd wait to do any major work until all is said and finished.My original plan was to make a vid blog, but I still need practice on talking without stuttering and find a better video editing program, and there wasn't much to talk about. Work on Baxter's Venture DC and Pocket Venture have been pretty fruitless, I did however received a call from Nintendo about working with them as a dev, but I missed the call and left a couple voice mails in hopes something might work out. It just looks like I've run into an avalanche of bad luck lately.I'm going to try to find an older version of Sony Vegas, and figure a way to get FRAPS insanely large file sizes down while not sacrificing video quality like Movie Maker Studio does. I could then at least get some gameplay footage up as I promised weeks ago.Also, I've changed some stuff from GG-Works into Glendemonium, in hopes of starting my Youtube channel. The hold up was that I was going to get a capture card, but the new game consoles on the market actually does that part for you with added mic input if you so desire... so I was holding out, but despite having a car I'm back to square one again. I'm thinking of just leaving GG-Works as my game label and Glendemonium as my Youtube name... just to keep things simple. Working on getting back on the horse now, not sure what I can do though. Baxter's Venture DC is pretty much an uphill battle to get on Greenlight, way WAY more no votes than anticipated, so I'm still improving the graphics to make it look like an older 32-bit style game. I need to find the right kind of support or try my luck at showing the game to Sony or Microsoft and see if I can get a dev kit of some kind, or maybe help on publishing it and splitting the revenue... though there is no reasonable way to port it at the moment. As for PC, I'd say 90% of PC gamers solely use Steam, so selling your game outside that is pretty much a bad idea if you want to make some money.I'm hoping the folks at Scirra would find a way to get a plug in so we can port and publish to the PS4 PSN store, though I have a feeling with Construct 2's format it's a very uphill battle.------------------------------Now, my youtube channel I had some ideas of original voice overs while playing gameplay footage. One character is a snippy voiced stalker who's completely oblivious that he's stalking people who may or may of not tormented him in High School, most particularly a high school crush and her circle of friends. It's a bit complicated of a story, but the jist of it is that he becomes a supervillain by the name of "The Revenger". I'll be using random gameplay footage of games like Watch Dogs and upcoming GTAV for the new consoles where it's just random mucking about with hopefully hilarious consequences. Think of the Monarch meets Professor Chaos with a dirty trench with a grudge against society.Now, the hard part about this is that making the character not come out as super creepy, due to the recent shootings we had this year and parts of last, I don't know the comfort level of how people feel about a character with delusional issues if they've been in that situation. People on the internet are super sensitive on this type of subject matter, which is a shame because there's just so much comedic material to go on. Perhaps I need to rework his character into that of a typical Alex Jones watching, anti-government fanatical hippie... meh, I'll figure something out.Another character is none other than Baxter himself playing videogames in his quest to become a better mascot, so there may be some skits involved if I feel like making them.I wanted to do one for Destiny, but I've hit a snag. Most of my crewmates own 360s, two own a One with one of them starting to go over to PS4 and I'm still indecisive (and broke as hell) on what to get. I'll be playing on 360 just to play with my friends and probably solo on PS4 if characters don't carry over... which is a shame as I'd rather play on the new machines but many of us still can't afford them with all our adult responsibilities coming first.Whew, that is about all I can muster. I wanted to make a video, but things aren't working out for me right now so I need more time and practice, until then, ciao!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Hello, I needed to drop by and let you know what's been going on, for those who don't follow me on Twitter anyway.I neglected to do an update last Sunday, weather was getting bad and it was late. Not alot of stuff going down...Until Monday, where a terrible storm hit us and flooded my entire apartment. To add insult to injury, Tuesday my once reliable Hyundai Accent is no more, submerged right outside my apartment, even after waiting hours for it to dry out the damage was done. So pretty much most of last week I was spent carless and waiting for the mechanic and insurance company to get a hold of me.So as I type this, I'm getting my car's title ready for the insurance payout and have to go find a used car within my price range, deal with registering that at the DMV, adjusting insurance information, and new registration. So you can imagine with two big whammies in a row it killed any motivation I had to work on Baxter's Venture DC. I did make some headway adding two new elements, but not enough to make screenshots.----------------In other news, I'm working on replacing any trace of GG-Works with the new label "Glendemonium" which with coincide with my Youtube channel which I plan to upload more videos. Once I get back on the horse after this mess, I plan on doing game related videos to anything I develop, as well as other videos talking about other games, and silly voice overs.Purchased a Samsung Meteor Mic and barely got to play with the thing when the storm happened. It's a nice piece of equipment, I sound much better... not what I intended, but it works. Now I have to work on getting a capture card.My first few videos will be PC related, possibly Minecraft as I play like such a noob before exploring. Once I get the CC, I want to dub the protagonist of Watch Dogs into someone I've been impersonating for a couple years, I think it might take off... or annoy you to death. I had to read a list on who's lenient with monetizing gameplay. I'm not doing lets plays, just completely random gameplay. If I do a Nintendo video, those won't be monetized due to strict rules regarding the fact, because I still want to do a Wind Waker retrospect.-----------------I apologize the past couple weeks weren't as productive, I'm slowly coming back on the wagon.-Cheers!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

It's hard to believe we've well past the halfway point. Maybe wishing for the next E3 isn't something good for my age now, haha.I have a couple new batch of screenshots, the first of more revisions. First lets start with the shop where you get your upgrades.

I must of had a lazy spell when I did the original where it was just a generic outdoor shop, this one makes it look far more established, plus I get to try out Construct 2's nifty shadow system out... which I learned it's not meant for complex shapes. I still need to figure something out with all the extra tokens you have once you buy all the upgrades.

The upgraded and now fully explore-able hub world, act 1 is near finished, as I'm considering changing the color pallet of the magenta tiles... though my biggest concern is the background makes Baxter hard to see... perhaps an orange sky? Light purple?

Not only that, but it looks like I'll have to implement a way for fast travel, otherwise you'll be having to trek your way to every act, which won't take too long, but in today's gaming generation, patience is no longer a virtue.

Also to note the shop won't be accessible until after you complete Act 1, to help gain a sense of adventure rather than just clicking something. Act 1 was meant to be a beginners test for the rest of the game, which will challenge you far greater. Plus! There will be hidden tokens scattered around, so it may be worth it to look around. This game is already chock full of nifty secrets, something that I hope players will enjoy.

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I really wished I had more done, but I think I've becoming addicted to the Wii U. Played the tar out of Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, and Wind Waker... a game I regret tarnishing back when it was announced in its cel shaded attire.

SM3DW feels a bit on the easy side, I have all the green stars for every level up until world 6, so I'm taking a break from that. In Mario Kart 8, man, haven't played since the N64 I had to learn some things... like, maintaining 1st place isn't guaranteed a win, no matter how hard you try, it's half luck based. Seriously, blue shells? I wasn't in first place a few races and those things STILL hit me as it goes to the first place driver. Then seems everyone and their mom has red shells and perfect aiming green shells. I had some VERY unlucky races where I would lose first place within moments of crossing the finish line on the final lap due to red/blue shell bombardment. Doesn't help you usually get crap for items when you're ahead (I suppose that's for balance). It's frustrating when you're trying to get three stars in every cup, I'm on special cup 100cc right now, and I usually don't try anything else until I've completed it. Oh well, I need the practice.

Wind Waker... man, after playing through the first couple dungeons I feel bad for putting this game down so many years ago because of my ignorant 20 year old self. It's fun and quirky, lots of the NPCs have distinguished personalities. I've talked to every NPC just to see what they would do. And the combat is very neat, it's not just mindless hack and slash, a little strategy is involved, and THE BOOMERANG ISN'T TOTALLY USELESS! The boss in the Dragon Roost Nest took me a while to figure out (swinging on the dragon's tail) where I kept trying to attack it's eye in the first form getting no-where. The second boss was rather easy, but fun nonetheless. I don't know why I didn't get this feeling with Twilight Princess... was I too far addicted to FFXI to even care? I dunno.

Yes, I watched that new sequelitis from Egoraptor and while I agree on how linear Zelda has become lately, I will disagree about his opinions on treasure chests and combat. OoT was a great game, just pretty dated now but its still good to play if you're up for it.Anyway, that is all, see you next time!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

EDIT: Whew, that was a chore. So I've finished the Save and Load feature for Baxter's Venture: DC. Before I couldn't wrap my head around Webstorage so I opted to use Save and Load states... which in turn can actually be very ineffective if handled the wrong way. I wonder now if the original might do that, but it never had so knock on wood.

This took me all week because I just didn't know how to make it work, even reading over and over the few tutorials out there it didn't sink in until today, with help from a good Construct 2 forum member. Coding was never my forte, but I'm willing to do what it takes as long as my brain isn't distracted by other things it would rather do (Like Super Luigi U). Saturday was just getting it set up, but today I've spent all day just getting the darn thing to work right... and it finally paid off!

So with that big obstacle done I've made a to do list of stuff to work on also, since I thought this game is done, my experience on Steam Greenlight tells me otherwise, which I'll explain in a bit.

My next obstacle is redoing the main game hub area, and possibly the shop. Both compared to the main game itself does look generic. I kept the tile like entry ways for the Act's and powerups because I loved the idea of paintings in Super Mario 64 and Portrait of Ruin and I figured I should make it more dynamic now. The current Hub is just a small sprite of Baxter and a treasure map that unlocks as you progress, but it just doesn't feel right now. And Lusa's shop could look more like a shop and not just outdoorsy... so that's going to change.

Plus, I can hide some tokens in the hub world for you to collect for added bonus.

After that, I have some ideas for more traps and puzzles to add, to make use of Baxter's main abilities. Some stompable enemies for starters and new traps for puzzle purposes.

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Now reason being that I'm doing all of this is because I DO NOT want this game to fail. While my game is on Greenlight, I looked at the stats and It's... not looking good. While there were plenty of enthusiasm in the comments, the stats tell another tale, and I look back at my game and realized that I wasn't as finished as I led myself to believe.

I realize that Baxter's Venture needs more polish than what is has, and a new gameplay video with the improvements added to convince the ones against the game to give it another chance to be Greenlit. Believe me when I say this but platforming games are a dime a dozen now, very few games truly stand out... and I need to try much harder if I want to see that kind of success. I see games like Shovel Knight, Super Meat Boy do so well, but both games had an amazing amount of hype behind them that Baxter lacks, despite my best efforts. Then again, I remember a well polished game like Mutant Mudds never became Greenlit, and Super Ubie Land is STILL on Greenlight... so I don't really know what's going on anymore.

Believe me if and when I become approved as a Nintendo developer, (begs to the heavens) you better believe I'll be going to Nintendo sites and hyping this train. PC gaming is a bit tougher to get any attention, same with mobile now that it's oversaturated, there's different expectations and tastes compared to consoles. Where as consoles, I believe a game like Baxter's Venture would be more welcome to the userbase.

Worse come to worse I could pander to internet celebrities, but I think there is a huge price to pay, ha ha.

I'm no 3D artist guru, this game isn't a 3DFPS, or a Slendermanish clone, or a Goat Simulatorish clone... or some overly ambitious artsy IP, it is what it is, but seeing that pie chart on Greenlight stung, so after I grabbed my bearings only one phrase came to mind before typing all of this:

Now for the hard part, I would like to ask a favor of anyone visiting this blog to show your support for this game and work towards getting it greenlit. I'm hoping the new and improved version would get noticed, as it's leaps and bounds better than the original version on Desura.

I won't have pricing available to me until a later time, for right now I'm guessing this game has to tally up enough votes/support. With your help, this game has a chance at success!

There is also an updated video on the link, it's in better quality than the one I've released a week ago. Also, there's no telling how long this will take, so I'm using this time to do more playthrough testing (since it's just me doing it, haha) to make sure there's no last minute game breakers.One example is I'm considering redoing the save function, rather than an autosave, you would be responsible for saving the game in hub worlds. Though since this is 2014, it seems almost expected. Plus the game has only one save file, not sure how that will go down with the masses. I will be checking out Construct 2 tutorials if there is a way I can sneak in that feature without too much trouble.Well, this weekend is almost over, time to relax.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

There was no way I was going to let this slide, it's already been on the backburner for weeks. After much delay, I present to you the official GG-Works trailer for "Baxter's Venture: Director's Cut!"

Hope you enjoyed the preview, I'm going to get this game uploaded on greenlight starting Monday, and while that game waits for the green... light, I'm going to give my game one more big playtest before I export it. The weekend I've spent testing a special event in-game for dedicated players only, and I hope for those who find it will find it very unique experience, heh heh.

I'm proud that this game is pretty much completed, save for the last testing phase. I want to make sure this game comes out with as few bugs as possible. Plus I have other projects I've wanted to start up lately, as you know, new IPs. Plus, I need to work on how to advertise my games. Having three games under my belt, I need to get GG-Works out there with some kind of reputation.

Speaking of which, I'm going to try my luck getting this game published onto the Wii U game console! Turns out, since I have the C2 license, I just have to contact Nintendo and wait for a rep to contact me back. Not sure how long it takes, but I will definitely notify you via Twitter and Blogspot what develops. This is a very exciting time for me, and I want to share it with all of you who's been following me these past few months.

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What a ride E3 was right? All three companies showcased games galore, people's wallets are going to be begging for mercy for the next couple years. Microsoft has done so well since the reveal of the Xbox One, I hope they see success out of it.

Nintendo's Treehouse event was a novel idea. Literally every game they had were pure gameplay footage, Bayonetta 2 and XenoBlade Chronicles X are going to be a blast to play. The more I think about it, there are a backlog of Wii games I never had the chance to play or I lost interest in halfway though because of my previous addiction to Final Fantasy 11 and Xbox 360. I'm looking at buying a Wii U first and then start grabbing some of these titles. PS4 will still be my next choice, but many of their games aren't coming out until next year, so while it saddens me I'll miss out on Destiny, I'll still be able to play it when I get the chance.

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My paycheck came and went just like that, no new mic for me right now... bills have to come first, especially student loans. I could make a video, but the audio quality my current mic is just too crappy. It makes me sound like one of my old youtube vids, like I have a cold and a lisp at the same time haha.

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Enjoy the trailer, and a little parting gift from an indie dev who dares to dream of the big time:

To Mr. Sakurai and your team of very skilled developers and artists, I look forward to your next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. You're the hardest working development team in the industry, thank you!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Well, I hope I didn't mess this up because this took place when I was at work and only managed to see a couple bombs drop. It started out with a friendly rivalry between Reggie and Iwata (They need their own sitcom with Nintendo Mascots as guest stars!) playing Miis on Super Smash Bros 4, only for Iwata to pull the Mario figuring and literally blast Reggie into orbit, haha good times. There were a couple skits by what looked like Robot Chicken too.

So to start out, here's the Mii Smash characters. All customizable, which looks pretty swank. I have a feeling I'll be playing these more than the regular... Oh God, Gman fanfics from my past coming baaaaaaaaaaack, oh wait... that's a story for another day. They also ended it with a reveal of Paletenia from Kid Icarus, it's great seeing more females in the roster, helps even things out. Masahiro Sakurai tells all about how Miis will function.

Another future hit is the new Mario Maker... notice something familiar about the interface and text? It feels VERY reminiscent of Mario Paint for the Super NES. From the looks of it, you can make custom levels in the old SMB sprites, or change it to NSMB models... either way, I'll bet this will help sell some units. People eat this stuff up, especially since we're in the Minecraft age.

Man, we could of used this game back in the day. Perhaps if they do DLC with this they could include sprites and models from other Mario games and franchises! Or better still, allow us to make our own sprites and models.... oh, getting ahead of myself here, ahah.

Now for the big reveal, which everyone saw coming... ZELDA Wii-U!!

Say what you want, I like the cel shaded look. The video was smooth and fantastic. It promises open world gameplay, similar to the original NES Zelda where you can go to any dungeon you want in any order. Link even looks like his Toon Link self but grown up. The special effects were nice and coloful, and you can attack on horseback it looks like. Hm, let me tell you a story, I was a fanboy when Wind Waker was announced. However, before Wind Waker there was a tech demo of Zelda that featured a realistic Link from OoT facing off against Ganondorf. We expected the first Gamecube Zelda to look like this... then they announced Wind Waker. For the first time people were divided on the art style, being the first of its kind. Me, along with other angry gamers dismissed the game and dubbing it "Celda" mocking it for its cutest cartoony look, and this was the insecure young 20 year old me who wanted MOAR GORE n DARK n GRGRULR... yeah, I was a jerk back in those days. When I get my Wii U I want to give Wind Waker the chance it deserved like any game, and I owe it to myself to close another chapter my own ignorance convinced me to look over.

Some odds and ends, Dragonball Xenoverse!! May be a return to form to Raging Blast/Budokai gameplay? Really tired of targeting/quicktime events... and hope character customization returns.

Bayonetta 2 looks fantastic, and fun! Nintendo content like a Link and Samus outfit, I think this would make a great Nintendo franchise, since the original was sorely overlooked on the other consoles.

Xenoblade Chronicles X, with this and Fire Emblem, Wii U might be a go to system for JRPGs. Hyrule Warriors will tide Zelda fans over until the main event arrives sometime next year.

As for Square Enix, well all they had at the forefront was FFXIV. At least they make it interesting, and it looks like Ramuh and Shiva primal battles are coming very soon.

And as always, the music is very good. I really tried to get into this game, but bias from XI and the fast paced flashy nature of this game makes it hard for me to enjoy, because I'm too slow lol. People on MMOs are quick to lose their shit if you under-preform in the slightest, DDs have to do at least a high DPS, tanks can NEVER lose hate, and healers HAVE TO keep you alive even if other players make it harder for others to do their job they're always the first ones to shoot off their mouths, haha. I've also heard they're allowing same sex marriages, which we all know certain groups will make it to an even bigger deal than it needs to be.

There will be a brutal version of Bahamut's Coil, so the hardcores are going to enjoy it. And in 2.4.? NINJA JOB CLASS!!, and according to the folks from BlueGartr its going to be a DPS. Hope they give it some comparable AoEs or no one is going to take them to endgame, lol. No seriously, one of my biggest regrets in XI was never playing Ninja because the it just wasn't a favored class post Treasures of Aht Urghan and it fell to obscurity. It looks flashy and insane to play!

Oh Square, you draw the inner subdued Final Fantasy fan in me, or is it out of me? Meh, as soon as I get my PS4 looks like I may resub just to get ready... my slow ass never made it to 50. Job ADD and all, plus If I go back I'm just going to suck it up as a tank, I wanted to go WAR but PLD seems to be my cup of tea, though I'll probably regret it, with my tight schedule. I'm glad to see them doing well despite the hell they received during the FF13 trilogy, now I'm eagerly awaiting FFXII remaster!

Oh, that's right. Looks like the juicy bits of E3 are over and I was saying that E3 would determine what console I'd get first. And I choose the PS4. Microsoft had a very strong show of games, trust me this decision was a tough one. I'll have to miss out on Sunset Overdrive and Dead Rising DLC for a short time. What won me to PS4 besides having ARR and Infamous, were Infamous First Light, No Man's Sky, Destiny exclusive stuff, Arkham Knight exclusive missions, some indie games I wanted to try (they weren't in the presentation) plus they're always going to have a resolution edge over Microsoft for the moment, so third parties will play better for the most part. I want an Xbox One, but like I said before I'm a poor working class guy who can only go one at a time. After PS4 is a WiiU for sure. I'm sorry, but their lineup into 2015 is nothing to scoff at, plus it'll give me a chance to play some Wii games I missed out on.

No sign of Fallout 4, oh well, better luck next year. There's TONS of great games coming out for months to come!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Oh man, what a day it was!Starting off with Microsoft's press conference, naturally they show off new Call of Duty Advanced Warfare gameplay, since CoD is synonymous with Xbox it was a given, before I get into that.Metal Gear Solid V : Phantom Pain was leaked/shown very early this morning with a new trailer, and it shows a far more violent side of Big Boss, as his decent into the tragic hero may come to a climax in this game from Kojima Productions. While it may be hard to tell if any of it is gameplay footage, Metal Gear has always won in abstract sociopolitical storytelling. Also to note this game will be open world, so those who are on the wait for the next Fallout (like me) this game would be a great tide me over until Bethesda is ready.EDIT: Looks like the trailer was a leak and removed from Youtube by Konami, but I think you can watch it here on Giant Bomb: MGS5: Phantom Pain June 9Back to Microsoft, their presser delivered. Don't take to heart all the PR swinging from game journalists about bombs dropping with third party exclusives, the past couple of weeks were a sea of bad journalism and bait clickery. Microsoft brought the games, and games, and more games!

Sunset Overdrive

Dead Rising super long Capcom parody title EX + alpha

Crackdown 3

Three things caught my attention: Sunset Overdrive, DLC for Dead Rising 3, and Crackdown 3. (must be the year of 3s.) While Dead Rising is no longer exclusive Capcom really show a sense of humor with their naming schemes and you can don outfits of Capcom classics like Chun-li and Mike Hagger with a boss fight against a zombie M Bison! How nuts is this? Sunset Overdrive shown off some more gameplay, I wish they would of show a bit of the character creator and maybe some more weapons and areas, we get it that the game is wacky, but there has to be more right? Crackdown 3 reminded me of Saints Row 4... which was a spoof of Crackdown, and I think I might want this game. I've played the first two demos but it never really clicked with me, but perhaps that was a time where I was far too glued to Final Fantasy 11 to really care.There were a couple oddballs there too, one in particular: a Monster Hunteresque "Scalebound" where you transform into a scaly armor hero riding dinosaurs... huh. And Project Spark, which is a shinier, Pixar like fully 3D Little Big Planet... with Conker, yes that nutty squirrel from Rare's game ten years ago. Oh, and something called Phantom Dust that people are losing their minds over, heh.Lara Croft is getting another game, "Rise of Tomb Raider". The first in the reboot was pretty well received, I have yet to play it (going to go remastered) so I might look forward to this, and Mirrors Edge 2... SEE, GAMES, GAMES AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE!Ubisoft had an impressive show, with Assassins Creed Unity and intro to Far Cry 4, over the top bad guy with a bad haircut, it's not Vaas but he could give him a run for his money if done right.

Now on to Sony, right now they are ruling the console war dominating in Europe and parts of Japan and the USA and many other regions.

Starting off with Destiny and new CG/Gameplay Footage, as you may not know I'm stoked for this game mainly due to playing online and offline at the same time... now sure how that works, but they did emphasize about robust solo player. I'm hyped for this game, mainly because of the social MMO itch but without too much of the hecticness for my slow ass, haha.

What baffled me is that Far Cry 4 and Destiny are both multi plat, but they showed gameplay on Sony's conference. Farcry looks really gorgeous and very crisp detailed open world, I dare say it might make Far Cry 3 dwarf in comparision. I'll admit it probably looks better on PS4 and they have exclusive content like early access beta.... speaking of.

DEAD ISLAND 2!!! Wow, I'm amazed there were like NO leaks for this. I liked both of the other games despite it's flaws. I know zombies have gone stale, especially when Dying Light comes out but Dead Island was a fun experience everyone should at least try. Trailer was funny to watch too.

Check out No Man's Sky too, I liked how seamless the transition of flying in and out of planets look, it feels like you're literally flying a spaceship, and the dogfighting reminds me of Starfox. I think this will be a cult classic when it hits world wide.

And the big reveal, (Sorry not that Uncharted 4 snippet, or GTAV remastered, but Arkham Knight gameplay! Holy shit Gotham is big and Scarecrow trolls the hell out of you. Oh and here's some Phantom Pain footage if you missed the link above.

Wow... I gotta say, wow... day one was just too much to soak in. And we still have Nintendo and third party devs to show that they have in store. I'm so glad they're sticking with games on this one, and maybe a new console or gadget reveal. Color me impressed, after tomorrow I'll have my hands full on what new game console to purchase first. Both systems have equally good games and experiences I wish I could afford both right off the bat.